Sixth Committee (Legal) — 71st session
Observer status for the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States in the General Assembly (Agenda item 166)
- Authority: decision 70/523
Documentation
- A/66/141 — Letter dated 2 May 2011 from the Permanent Representatives of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General; Observer status for the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States in the General Assembly
Summary of work
Background (source: A/71/100)
In a letter dated 2 May 2011 (A/66/141), the Permanent Representatives of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey to the United Nations requested the inclusion of this item in the provisional agenda of the sixty-sixth session.
At its sixty-sixth to seventieth sessions, the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Sixth Committee, decided to defer a decision on the request for observer status for the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States in the Assembly to its following sessions (decisions 66/527, 67/525, 68/528, 69/527 and 70/523).
Consideration at the seventy-first session
A general statement was made. The viewpoint was reiterated that the requirements stated in General Assembly decision 49/426 of 9 December 1994 (that observer status in the Assembly should be confined to States and to those intergovernmental organizations whose activities cover matters of interest to the Assembly) must be present to grant observer status, and that it was difficult to review a request without having access to the information regarding the full membership and the constitutive instrument of any requesting organization. Dissemination of the constitutive instruments for those requests for which such information had yet to be received was sought.
The Sixth Committee considered the item at its 12th meeting, on 11 October 2016 (see A/C.6/71/SR.12). For its consideration of the item, the Committee had before it the above mentioned letter dated 2 May 2011 from the Permanent Representatives of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General (A/66/141).
Action taken by the Sixth Committee
At the 12th meeting, on 11 October, the Committee had before it a proposal for a draft resolution, entitled “Observer status for the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States in the General Assembly” (A/C.6/71/L.2). At the same meeting, the Chair of the Committee announced that the Bureau had been informed by the delegation of Kazakhstan, on behalf of the sponsors, that the sponsors were requesting that the Committee defer a decision on the request for observer status for the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States in the General Assembly to the seventy-second session of the Assembly.
At the same meeting, the Committee adopted, without a vote, a draft decision under which the General Assembly would decide to defer a decision on the request for observer status for the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States in the General Assembly to the seventy-second session of the Assembly.
Subsequent action taken by the General Assembly
- Report of the Sixth Committee: A/71/523
- GA decision: 71/524 [for the text of the decision, see the Sixth Committee's report to the General Assembly]
This agenda item will be considered at the seventy-second session (2017).
